Monday, September 3, 2012

Trip to Brandywine Valley 2012I wanted to see the Sampler exhibit in West Chester, PA
so Michael said lets go and make a weekend out of it. Thus begins our Labor day weekend 2012.

We packed food for the road (we hate eating at service
plazas) and off we went.

We drove straight to Chester County Historical Society to
see In Stitches exhibit which presented samplers done by West Town school
girls.The oldest sampler was 1809. They
used the same motifs and colored threads however the arrangements were different.They stitched quotes on them representing why
they did these samplers:they did them
so their would be something for their family to have of them and they also
stitched their family trees.They also
did demonstrations of darning. One
of the interesting stitched items were the globes that the school children stitched.

After visiting the samplers, the museum had some
interesting artifacts from the civil war such as the underground railroad items
and even from the period of women's suffrage.This poster was printed listing the reasons women should be given the vote.

We ate at Harvest restaurant in Glen Mills, PA.I ordered brick chicken with vegetables and
it was excellent and even low calorie.It was a organic, green, sustainable facility.However, michael ordered sweet pea chicken
tortellini and he was not as impressed.He thought it was tasteless and it was BECAUSE they forgot to add the
chicken.Free dinner that night!

That evening, we went to Longwood Gardens.What a beautiful venue.

Conservatory

Blue Tango Plant

Hibiscus

Bonsai Crepe Myrtle

Shrimp Plant

Michael relaxing near waterfall

Colleen in front of Water Lilies pond

In addition to the beautiful gardens, topiaries, conservatories,
etc theyhad a light show exhibition
where they placed fairies lights in their meadows and forest and you walk
through at night.It looked like you
were walking into a fairy tale book.This was done by a british artist Brian Munro and hundreds of
volunteers.And if that was not enough
stimulation, they had fireworks to music.Swan Lake.It was the best
fireworks display we ever seen and synchronized to music perfectly.http://light.longwoodgardens.org/

What a glorious night!We would like to visit again during different
seasons. We stayed in a great room at the fairfield inn at Kenneth
square

Next day , we ate at Hanks Place which is a local
restaurant that only takes cash and had long waiting lines.I ordered omelette and bacon and it was the
best omelet ive had yetVery creamy
cheese inside .Again Michael ordered
badly.He ordered eggs Benedict however
it was more like the Navy's version of eggs benedict.It was poached eggs with chipped beef sauce
on it.YUCK. He said his father would
have loved it because his dad loved chipped beef being a navy man.We would definitely go back.

After breakfast, w

e visited WInterthur which was Henry F. Dupont's
estate.

It is also the venue for
Woodlawn Exhibit which is the largest exhibition of needle art held every year
however that is held in the spring.We
only did the general admission tour and took the tram through the forest
because it was raining.Mr dupont's
intention was to not open his home to public but to create a museum for the
public.He bought wood from homes up and
down the east coast and reinstalled them in this old Victoria. Home.He tore down walls and staircases to do that
and built additions just to accommodate this acquisitions.So you didn't get to see what his life was
like but you did see what he purchased.He had a interior designer eye and purchased paintings and items to fit
the room he was designing.The rooms
were beautiful but in my opinion a waste of money.He should have used his millions to help
people instead of showing off his wealth.We tried to do some research on him on the web while we were at lunch but all that
came up was that the DuPonts may have been part of a secret society and could have participated in creatyion of a New World Order.When I was halfway thru the tour, I became disgusted with the wealth and
his lack of sensitivity for others in need. FYI, He lived through the depression.Some of Pittsburgh's wealthy did give back
maybe not as much as they should but they did.This guy did not.Anyway, the
items I thought were interesting are below.Unfinished painting by Benjamin. West and a painting by John Trumball of
George Washington.They say this is the
best likeness of GW done by a painter.His dining room table with cigarettes offered like a side dish.

I would return though to see the gardens and the
needlework exhibit next year

We ended this weekend with a picnic at the Chadds Ford
Historical Society.We did not have the time to visit it
but we used their picnic table isnteadWhat a
fun weekend and what a great husband I have.Not many men will agree to be dragged on such a "chick
weekend".